Banana bag

ABSTRACT

A bag made of plastic material such as polyethylene in the shape of several fingers of bananas. Each bag has an upper &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;gathering portion&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; adjacent the main opening, and beyond that portion, a concavo-convex portion shaped to receive several fingers of bananas and to conform generally to the shape thereof. It may have an open corner for crown protrusion and/or perforations, for ventilation purposes. After the banana fingers are put into the bag, the gathering portion is gathered together and bound with a wire-type binder or other means such as tape or cord. The bags are made from a tube of plastic material that is slit lengthwise, and folded into a J section. The J sheeting is cut into rectangles of size to permit the making of a bag from each rectangle, in an operation wherein the shape of a bag is formed in each rectangle, sealed around its periphery and perforated so that the surplus material outside the seal can be pulled away. At this time, the rectangles are formed with air holes through their panels and with wicketing holes in the lip portion formed by the overlap of the J sheet. These wicket holes enable the rectangles to be impaled with others on a wicket to form a stack. When stacked, the surplus material is pulled away from the sealed sides of the bags as permitted by the perforations, and may be reground, pelleted and reextruded to make new film. Thereafter, individual bags may be pulled off the wickets and used.

United States Patent [72] Inventor William S. Swinford New Orleans, La. [21] Appl. No. 820,426 [22] Filed Apr. 30, 1969 [45] Patented .lan.5,197l [73] Assignee Standard Fruit and Steamship Co. Inc.

New Orleans, La. a corporation of Delaware 54 BANANA BAG 2 Claims, 10 Drawing Figs.

[52] US. Cl 229/53, 229/88; 99/171 [51] int. Cl B6541 31/16 [50] Field ofSearch 99/171,

187; l50/3; 229/53, 8 8 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,435,490 2/1948 Beager et a]. 150/3 2,664,358 12/1953 Eichler 99/187 3,372,857 3/1968 Brayla 229/53 Primary Examiner-David M. Bockenek Attorney-Kingsland, Rogers, Ezell, Eilers & Robbins ABSTRACT: A bag made of plastic material such as polyethylene in the shape of several fingers of bananas. Each bag has an upper gathering portion" adjacent the main opening, and beyond that portion, a concave-convex portion shaped to receive several fingers of bananas and to conform generally to the shape thereof. It may have an open corner for crown protrusion and/or perforations, for ventilation purposes. After the banana fingers are put into the bag, the gathering portion is gathered together and bound with a wiretype binder or other means such as tape or cord. The bags are made from a tube of plastic material that is slit lengthwise, and folded into a J section. The .l sheeting is cut into rectangles of size to permit the making of a bag from each rectangle, in an operation wherein the shape of a bag is formed in each rectangle, sealed around its periphery and perforated so that the surplus material outside the seal can be pulled away. At this time, the rectangles are formed with air holes through their panels and with wicketing holes in the lip portion formed by the overlap of the J sheet. These wicket holes enable the rectangles to be impaled with others on a wicket to form a stack; When stacked, the surplus material is pulled away from the sealed sides of the bags as permitted by the perforations, and may be reground, pelleted and reextruded to make new film. Thereafter, individual bags may be pulled off the wickets and used.

BANANA BAG SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention consists of a clear plastic bag made in the shape of fingers of bananas and capable of being pulled from a stack, designed to be easily filled with fruit and sealed up by gathering at its top, yet with adequate aircirculation to permit proper ripening of the fruit, and preferably with means for crown protrusion and for egress of latex emitted by the crown.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a face view of the preferred form of the bag,

FIG. 2 is a section on the line 2-2 at the top of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a medial longitudinal section through the bag on the line23-3ofFIG. l;

FIG. 4 is a transverse section across the lower part of the bag of FIG. 1, taken on the line 4-4 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view partly broken away, of the extruded tubular plastic material after it has been slit and folded to form J sheeting;

FIG. 6 is a view of the plastic sheet material after perforation and sealing;

FIG. 7 is a top view of a stack of the bag rectangles impaled onto a wicket support prior to removal of surplus material;

FIG. 8 is a left end view of the stack of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a view showing the manner of removal of the surplus material; and

FIG. 10 is a view of an alternate construction which does not incorporate a hole for crown protrusion.

In FIGS. 1 through 4, the bag isshown as being made of a clear thin flexible plastic sheeting such as polyethylene, or other like plastic sheeting of the typeused for bags. It has, in reference to FIG. 1, a back panel and a somewhat higher front panel 16. It has one generallystraight vertical sealed edge portion 17 that continues smoothly smoothly into a curved convex bottom sealed edge portion 18 extending around and upwardly to a toe portion 19 whereat the panels are not sealed together, so that there is an opening 20 there into the bag. Above the opening 20, the edge of the bag has a concave sealed edge portion as shown at 21 that continues into a vertical sealed edge portion 22.

At the top of the bag, the back panel 15 extends above the front panel 16, providing a projecting lip'23. The top edges are not sealed together, this providing a filler opening 25 between them. Adjacent the top edge two holes 26-are shown extending through the back lip 23. The upper portion between the parallel sides is referred to as the gathering portion. The lower concavo-convex portion is the portion to receive the bananas.

The bag is provided with a plurality of holes 30 extending through both panels 15 and 16, for ventilation essential to maturation of the bananas. Y

The bag is in the shape of several fingers of bananas, as for example, four. The fingers, normally still attached together to a crown, can be inserted crown first into the bag 14 through the top opening 25, the panels of plastic being sufficiently flexible to permit this to be done easily. The curvature of the bananas accords with the curved edges 18 and 21 and the crowns of the bananas are directed toward the opening 20.

In the alternate embodiment shown in FIG. 10, the bag is the same, except that it has a toe 36 that is entirely sealed without the hole 20 in the design shown in FIG. I.

In making the bags, the polyethylene is extruded into a sleeve. The sleeve is then slit and folded to form J sheeting 40 as shown in FIG. 5, with the back panel projecting above the front panel to correspond with the bags to be made. The J sheeting 40 is out along the lines to provide a plurality of rectangular blanks. In the same operation these rectangular J- sections are perforated as shown at 18a and 21a to correspond with the curved edges 18 and 21 of the bags, the edges'l7, 19 and 22 being contained within the cut lines 45. The sheeting is simultaneously sealed adjacent and just inside the perforations 18a and 210, as well as just inside the cuts 45 to seal the edges I7 and 22, all so that the edges of the bag to be formed are well sealed together. This is done by heat and pressure, or one of the other methods known in the art. Also, the panels are simultaneously perforated to provide the vent holes 30 and the perforations 26. I

The foregoing provides a plurality of preperforated and presealed rectangular bag blanks. They are then impaled on a wicket or U hook 50 that can be releasably mounted on a base 51. A stack as large as convenient can be made, such as I00 bags 14, as illustrated in FIG. 8.

When the bags are thus stacked, the surplus edges are pulled off. FIG. 9 shows that there will be a stack of corners 52 and corners 53 that can be separated from the stack of bags 14 in by the perforations 18a and 21a, leaving a stack of bags 14 in final shape impaled onto the wicket 50. The scrap material can be reprocessed and reextruded. After the scrap is removed, the bags are ready for filling and can'be pulled off one at a time from the stack, tearing the material at the holes 26. i

It is preferred to make the bag with the opening 20 shown in FIG. 1, since this gives an opening for latex, produced by the cut surfaces of the banana, to flow out of the bag. It will be understood that when several banana fingers, such as four, are inserted into a bag 14, the curvature of the several bananas is directed in accord with the shape of the bag. This tends tov open the hole 20 for air circulation and allow the crown of the banana cluster to protrude from the bag. The lip 23 at the to of the bag can be held to make it simpler to open the bag for the insertion of the fruit.

The advantage of the shaped bag over an unshaped bag is that it holds the fruit snugly in place; it permits the fruit to be easily seen all around; it forms a much more attractive package. It avoids unnecessary corners that can be snagged in packing and unpackingthefruit. Likewise, the shape as illustrated tends to distribute any downward load of the banana over an area-instead of having thelowerparts thereof digging into'a square bottom seal. Thefruit is restrained from moving around in this bag in a manner that would cause it to break through the bag;

When the banana fingers are disposed ina bag, they fit into the lower concave-convex portion. The upper portion is then gatheredtogether and tied with a wire strip or a cord which can also be used to suspend the bag from hooks for retail display. By suspending clusters of bananas in this'fashion, the retailer can simulate a stem of bananas in his store and use the effect thereby produced to stimulate customer interest. A further advantage of suspending the banana cluster is that it eliminates damage to the fruit createdwhen the weight of the cluster rests on a display surface.

A unique feature of the bag is thatthe same single shape and size a can be used to envelop clusters with finger counts ranging from three to eight, and finger lengths ranging from 7% inches (measured along the outer whorl of the back tier of fin gers) to II inches (measured in the same manner). This is possible because of the concavo-convex construction of the bag and because of the gathering portion feature.

Various changes and modifications may be made within the process of this invention as will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications are within the scope and teachingof this invention as defined by the claims appended hereto.

Iclaim:

1. In a bag formed in a shape to receive several attached fingers of bananaszthe bag having joined front and back panels of clear, flexible plastic, air-impermeable sheet material, the bag having an entrance opening at its top whereat the top panel edges are not secured together, the front and back panels being sealed together at their upper edges and the panels being longer from top to bottom than several attached fingers of bananas to form a generally tubular gathering portion adjacent the entrance opening, beyond which the bag panel edges on one side are sealed together in a convex curve from one side around the bottom to a toe portion, disposed ad- 2. In a bag of claim 1: a toe opening through the toe portion. between the convex and concave edges, to permit latex outflow from the bananas, but being too small for egress of banana fingers. 

1. In a bag formed in a shape to receive several attached fingers of bananas: the bag having joined front and back panels of clear, flexible plastic, air-impermeable sheet material, the bag having an entrance opening at its top whereat the top panel edges are not secured together, the front and back panels being sealed together at their upper edges and the panels being longer from top to bottom than several attached fingers of bananas to form a generally tubular gathering portion adjacent the entrance opening, beyond which the bag panel edges on one side are sealed together in a convex curve from one side around the bottom to a toe portion, disposed adjacent the other side, and on the other side are sealed together in a concave curve above the toe portion, so as to conform to the curved shape of a plurality of banana fingers; and vent opening means in the bag but being too small for egress of the bananas.
 2. In a bag of claim 1: a toe opening through the toe portion, between the convex and concave edges, to permit latex outflow from the bananas, but being too small for egress of banana fingers. 